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   %SALVATION FAITH WORKS WORKAHOLIC ADDICT BELIEFS 900509

     There has  been much debate regarding  the   relative
merits of salvation by faith and salvation by works.    In
the  debate  it  has usually been taken for  granted  that
there was some fundamental defect in those who were to  be
saved by works and/or faith;  an original sin which had to
be fixed or compensated for in some way; e.g.,  good works
and/or good beliefs/faith.

     Perhaps salvation  has to do with  transcending   the
compulsive   preoccupation  with  finding   a   technique,
procedure,   fix,   etc.   by which to  compensate  for  a
fundamental  personal  defect in the person to  be  saved.
Perhaps  God  does  not  regard  people  as  fundamentally
defective; either before or after the events in the Garden
of  Eden  where the forbidden knowledge of good  and  evil
became known through disobedience.

     The  story of the fall describes the consequences  of
believing  that some of us are fundamentally defective and
in  need  of fixing through some efforts  (faith,   works,
belief).   Fallen people believe that they can know who is
defective  and  who is not as defective;  by use of  their
knowledge of good and evil. If fallen people are defective
the  defect may lie in their belief that they can know who
is defective. The  fall is embodied in the mis-belief that
we  can  know who  is  defective and who is not.  The fall
is   not   an historical event.  It is  present  reflexive
knowledge  which  confirms   itself without  reference  to
external  historical reality.

     Belief in the fallen state of persons is   profitable
to people who are in the business of appearing to  provide
fixes  for fallen people.   False prophets do  not  reveal
that  salvation is offered in the truth that God does  not
expect  us  to fix our defects,  or to get them  fixed  by
others  in order to win Her Love and Acceptance.   Such  a
revelation  would  dry up the market for their  profitable
false teachings.

     True  prophets reveal that God does not expect us  to
fix  our defects or get them fixed by others in  order  to
win  his  love and acceptance,  or in order  to  win  each
other's  love and acceptance.   God does not expect us  to
reject each other because of our presumed defects; defects
such  as our failures to be good and/or the  imperfections
by  which  we are regarded as evil.   The Gospel has to do
with  the truth that salvation is at hand in the reflexive
realization  that  fixing  defects and/or compensating for
defects is not the way to salvation.

     Addicts turn  the  Gospel  into  a  context  for  the
development  of addictive technologies by which to  appear
to  fix what needs fixing.   Some people focus  upon  work
technologies,   others  focus   upon  belief technologies,
yet others on faith technologies.  Addicts  try  to   gain
control  through  the use of some manipulative  technology
which  may revolve around:  alcohol,  drugs,  work,   sex,
money, chance, belief, faith, works, rituals, scholarship,
knowledge,    etc.   Salvation  pertains  to recovery from
such   addictions;   not to the choice of the focus for  a
proper addiction.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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